Category Archives: Enlightenment

Nothing happens
Saying , “drop the doership”
Like a parrot
Not even
By intellectual understanding
When the presence of doership in unconscious
And the stress caused by it
Is recognised
Does the doership really go away

A cook touches a very hot utensil accidentally and automatically the body pulls the hand back.

An electrician touches a high voltage live wire accidentally and automatically the body pulls the hand back.

The above two examples are the illustrations of how things happen automatically without us doing them consciously. These actions happen via defence mechanism thanks to the nervous system.

It is easy to see via both of these examples that we are not the doers. However, when it comes to other acts like speaking for example it is not so easy to see that things are happening on their own. We often tend to own the doership. This is because, while tuning of attention does happen automatically, it happens so quickly when attention keeps on drifting from one place to the other that our conditioned intellect is unable to catch the autopilot behaviour. When this fact that everything happens by itself is recognised by watching the activities of body-mind, e.g. the appearance of thoughts, movement of hands, words coming out from mouth, happening of hearing via ears etc., the astonishing realisation that I am not doing anything and everything is happening by itself takes place (also refer to Bhagavad Gita 5.8, 5.9). After the recognition of this fact that if everything is just happening and I am not doing anything and this body-mind is like a robot, the question, “Who am I?” is natural to come. Seeking of the answer to this question may eventually take the seeker towards enlightenment when the seeker after finding itself sees itself everywhere.

The embedded video below showing enlightenment taking place is from an old Indian movie, “Guide”. Some of my remarks in English are also shown below to highlight certain aspects of the story. The movie, “Guide” was inspired by the novel, “The Guide” by R. K. Narayan. English trailer of the movie can be found here.

Experience of bliss increases as Sattvaguna becomes more and more prominent. However, as Gita says Sattvaguna binds by creating attachment to bliss (refer this). If you are following meditation based approach (Rajayoga or its variants) to purify mind then you may get stuck in the experience of bliss taking it to be enlightenment which is like a golden cage. Experience of bliss is after all an experience and you are the knower of the bliss. Enlightenment is about knowing directly the knower of all experiences. Any experience comes and goes but you remain and you experience yourself 24×7. Knowing that consciousness is real you is enlightenment. You are the bliss itself and it is the mind that experiences the bliss. It is important to also understand that everybody experiences bliss every now and then. In deep sleep there is experience of bliss for everybody (that is why nobody likes getting up from deep sleep) but one does not get enlightened in deep sleep. Since an enlightened person generally has greater percentage of Sattvaguna, he/she may experience it more often. Also, an enlightened person may choose to experience bliss more frequently by abiding more often in the reflection of Self*. Bliss is a state of mind.

*Even an unenlightened person can experience bliss more frequently by abiding more often in IAmness/presence.

Nisargadatta Maharaj: You have not forgotten. It is in the picture on the screen that you forget and then remember. You never cease to be a man because you dream to be a tiger. Similarly you are pure light appearing as a picture on the screen and also becoming one with it.

[Source: I Am That]

Comments: The picture on the screen has forgotten that it actually is light. This happens due to maya. Maya is responsible for false identification & bondage.

It is somewhat easy to teach about an object. However, the absolute truth is not an object. So, it is not possible to show it. There are many methods that are developed to take the seeker towards the absolute truth. Since these are just methods to lead one towards the truth and these methods are trying to speak of something that cannot be objectified, they may have apparent contradictions. After the Self Realisation, the methods need to be dropped.

For example sake, let us consider the use of the word witness when talking about the Self. The word witness is a nice pointer, but strictly speaking there is an element of duality hidden in it. If there is a witness, there is something to witness, i.e. duality. Pure awareness means there is nothing else but it, no duality. The seer and the scenery merge. Thus, the word witness is a pointer helping a seeker to separate the Self from the non-Self (body & unsteady mind). This pointer becomes useless from the perspective of Self.